Monoliths & Dimensions cover

Monoliths & Dimensions

Released

Monoliths & Dimensions is Sunn O)))’s most audacious album. Each track is different, adding new elements to their core sound (a vast cloud of ultra-heavy, ultra-distorted, room-filling guitar and bass chords that are allowed to rumble out until it seems like the foundations of your house are going to give way). Vocalist Attila Csihar, who intones poetry in a sepulchral baritone and an impossibly thick Dracula accent, is a constant presence, but one track features a female vocal ensemble, another features an all-male chorus, while a third — a salute to Alice Coltrane — features orchestral horns, flute, multiple double basses, and harp. It’s still some of the heaviest music around, but there’s an airiness to it, like someone cracked a skylight in the vast ziggurat in which they dwell, letting a ray of sunshine strike the altar.

Phil Freeman

Suggestions
Pedernal cover

Pedernal

Susan Alcorn Quintet
Nina cover

Nina

Xiu Xiu
Rabo De Nube cover

Rabo De Nube

Jason Moran, Eric Harland, Reuben Rogers, Charles Lloyd Quartet
Swallowtail cover

Swallowtail

Jim White, Marisa Anderson
People in Sorrow cover

People in Sorrow

Art Ensemble of Chicago
Fetch cover

Fetch

Melt-Banana
Halve Maen cover

Halve Maen

Double Leopards